Graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty, community partners, academic-community teams, and others are all invited to participate. This will be an intensive co-learning institute to explore how CBPR intersects with indigenous knowledges and methodologies, including the challenges for academics and community members to co-construct knowledge for improved community health.Enrolled students will receive two credits for participating in readings and discussion. A third credit will be given for those completing a CBPR paper based on your own current or potential research project. Enrollment is limited to 40 participants. UNM tuition plus $30.00 student fees; or $200.00 to attend Institute if not enrolled for credit.

Introduction to Institute:

CBPR and related approaches, i.e., Participatory Action and Community-Engaged Research, is defined by the Kellogg Foundation as a "collaborative approach that equitably involves all partners in the research process…with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities.”Nota set of methods, CBPR is an overall orientation which fundamentally changes the relationship between researchers and researched.

There are no universally accepted definitions of Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Methodologies, though often these terms are associated with Indigenous peoples, who come from communities with historical continuity from pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies. For this Institute, we are using a broad definition of Indigenous Knowledge, meaning the knowledge that is an “exercise in self-determination” (Doxtator, 2004), referring to values, beliefs, rituals, traditions, and environmental relationships that are deeply embedded within the economic, political and cultural social contexts in which they have been developed (Ball & Simpkins, 2004; Briggs, 2005). Indigenous methodologies are “those methodologies and approaches to research that privilege indigenous knowledges, voices, and experiences” (Smith 2005).

Structure of Institute:

The goal of this Institute is to weave together the theory and practice of CBPR and indigenous knowledge and methodologies through study of the literature, case studies, presentations by community-academic partners, and self-reflection on our own research questions and inquiry. Participants will gain an appreciation of CBPR advantages and challenges, as well as skills necessary for participating effectively in CBPR projects.

Readings:

Minkler, M., and Wallerstein, N. (editors),Community Based Participatory Research for Health: From Process to Outcomes, 2nd edition, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2008

Reading Packet which will be posted on E-Reserves, Health Sciences Library, University of New Mexico.